U.S. Army Finishes Binary Chemical Treatment

The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency announced yesterday that it has completed neutralizing binary chemicals that could have been used to produce deadly agents (see GSN, June 9).

The agency’s Nonstockpile Chemical Materiel Project and a contractor since December 2005 had been treating the chemical precursors QL and DF at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas.

Binary munitions were designed to combine two nonlethal chemicals to form a weapons agent during delivery by aircraft.  The U.S. military produced one type of binary munition, which was never used.

QL would have been combined with another chemical to form VX nerve agent.  DF would have formed sarin nerve agent when mixed with another chemical.

Treated material will be shipped to a commercial facility in Texas for destruction by December 2007, according to an Army press release.

The facility used to destroy the binary chemicals sits within the only Integrated Binary Production Facilities building that has yet to be demolished at Pine Bluff.  Demolition preparations are now under way.  By destroying the final building, the United States would meet its obligation under the Chemical Weapons Convention to eliminate all former chemical weapons production sites (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, Oct. 12).

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